This 2 week prep + 6-week intensive lab is limited to 8 students and is run like a professional writers room.

During lab, you will develop and write your material at the demanding pace expected in a professional environment using Script Anatomy tools. All classmates are required to devote outside class time to homework, writing and, at certain points along the process, actively participate in the development and story breaking process each week. In a professional writers room, you must participate if you want to keep your job. Working this muscle will benefit you.

Aside from helping you develop, outline, and write your script in 6 weeks, Pilot Lab includes writing and business topic lectures. This unique curriculum provides invaluable preparation for your first staffing job.

Moving to a new location! So, make the jump with us and join the fun at BLANKSPACES SANTA MONICA.

UX Peeps,

The Peer-to-Peer UX Design Reviews & Teamwork Night takes place one the first Monday of each month at 7pm sharp at BLANKSPACES SANTA MONICA. Please come planning to help your UX peers by contributing to the review session. We will be reviewing each-others’ work, providing helpful feedback and have an open discussion of the evening at the end for a peer-driven conversation about emerging UX developments and concerns.

Occasionally, the gathering will be a “no host” event. Regardless, please meet to give and receive useful feedback to each other. By regularly attending these gatherings, you’ll have the opportunity to strengthen your connections within the local UX community, improve your work and polish your communication skills.

The ability to self-organize (see the Principles behind the Agile Manifesto) is an important one. Use this opportunity to work on your self-organizing team skills as you provide helpful feedback to each other.

Also, feel free to bring friends, co-workers, your mentor or those you are collaborating with.

In addition, Ikponmwosa (I.K.) Olomu is offering one-on-one UX office hours​. To meet with him, please let him know you are coming him in advance. Just leave a message in the comments area below.

We will meet in one of the conference rooms so we can use a projector to view each other’s work. At the beginning of the event, each person will introduce herself or himself. Please tell everyone what project you are working on and what kind of help you might need. After that, please tell everyone how you may be able to help them. Please use the “UX Design Critique Conversation Starters” guide by Lane Haley >>

Important notes:

• We will be starting at 7PM sharp so plan to arrive at 6:45PM.

• Once you have signed-in, make sure your computer is ready to project your work using the monitor display.

• Don’t forget to bring any dongles or adapters you might need.

• At the beginning of each meeting, we will use 15 minutes for everyone to introduce themselves. Please prepare a 30-second introduction about yourself and/or your project.

• Each presenter will get 15 minutes of time. I recommend that you use 7 minutes to present and 8 minutes for feedback. To help you keep track of time, we will set a timer and let you know when to stop.

• If you want to present, please mention it in the comment section below. At the event, be sure to add your name to the presenters’ sign-in list on the whiteboard.

We will continue to iterate on the format as we go. Can’t wait to see you there!

Professional Screenwriting and Television Writing
@ BLANKSPACES: Santa Monica

Aug 3 @ 8:00 pm – 11:00 pm

There are two essential skill sets required for screenwriting and television writing success:

The ability to write scenes that grab a reader’s attention and make them want to keep reading, and the ability to sequence those scenes into the most compelling order (story structure). These skills are not equal.

The first skill is far more important than the second one.

Many writers believe they already write sufficiently strong scenes, characters and dialogue, and that if they could only get better at story structure they’d be able to write professional-level scripts. Unfortunately, this is too often not the case.

I recently met a producer who received 116 script submissions from writers at a pitch fest. He read the first scene or two of each script, but would only continue reading if those scenes were compelling and well written. I asked how many scripts he read beyond the first couple of scenes?

He said only two.

Which means he tossed 114 of the 116 scripts after only a few pages.

The single most important skill required for success is the ability to write original, powerful, and compelling scenes. If a writer can’t consistently do that, all the story structure in the world won’t save them. Without this ability, a writer simply has no shot.

PROFESSIONAL SCREENWRITING AND TELEVISION WRITING WORKSHOP

In this intensive eight-week workshop, we will analyze successful scenes, complete weekly writing assignments, and review participants’ work in a supportive, yet challenging environment. By working on emotional context, narrative intensity, cohesion, organic escalations, clarity, efficiency, high impact pacing, set-ups, builds and pay-offs, participants will learn the tools necessary to write and edit professional-caliber scenes essential for any successful screenplay or TV script.

Additionally, participants will learn how to develop the four essential screenwriting skill sets necessary for long-term success – writing clear and compelling professional-level conflict, strengthening and integrating both the conceptual (story) and intuitive (character) sides of writing, organic story structure, and rewriting.

COST

$495. Participants may pay by check or credit card.

LOCATION

The Professional Screenwriting and Television Writing Workshop is offered online using multi-video conference technology allowing participants to see and hear each other in real time. Writers have attended this workshop from across the US, Europe, Australia, Canada, and South Africa.

For writers living in Los Angeles, the Professional Screenwriting and Television Writing Workshop is offered at The Writers Junction, located at 1001 Colorado Avenue in Santa Monica.

ENROLLMENT

New workshop sessions tend to sell out within a few days of being announced. Enrollment priority is given to writers on the Workshop Interest List. To put yourself on this list, or if you have questions, please email Lisa Mulcaster atlisa@coreymandell.net

Talton Wingate is an award-winning writer and professional screenwriter. He was honored for his first script Norman, named one of the “Top 10 Scripts of 2005,” alongside other screenwriting luminaries that year such as Aaron Sorkin (with Charlie Wilson’s War), Diablo Cody (with Juno), and David Benioff (with The Kite-Runner). Norman was released in 2011 as a feature film starring Richard Jenkins, Dan Byrd, Emily Van Camp and Adam Goldberg.

Talton has experience with all aspects of the business from selling specs, adapting original properties, rewriting and pitching. He has also been featured in scr(i)pt magazine. Talton is a graduate of Northwestern University’s Film Program and Creative Writing Program, where he was awarded Best Fiction Writer of 2003. He hails from Atlanta and currently resides in Los Angeles.

Veritas Prep was the first to require all GMAT prep instructors to score in the 99th percentile on the official exam, but that’s the minimum requirement to even apply for a teaching job. A candidate earns an interview by demonstrating teaching experience and a history of helping others. What makes someone Veritas Prep instructor material – and what all our instructors have in common – is proving the ability to teach students how to master the GMAT and to do so with passion and fun. To see who is teaching your own class, find a course near you.

Professional Screenwriting and Television Writing
@ BLANKSPACES: Santa Monica

Aug 4 @ 7:30 pm – 10:30 pm

There are two essential skill sets required for screenwriting and television writing success:

The ability to write scenes that grab a reader’s attention and make them want to keep reading, and the ability to sequence those scenes into the most compelling order (story structure). These skills are not equal.

The first skill is far more important than the second one.

Many writers believe they already write sufficiently strong scenes, characters and dialogue, and that if they could only get better at story structure they’d be able to write professional-level scripts. Unfortunately, this is too often not the case.

I recently met a producer who received 116 script submissions from writers at a pitch fest. He read the first scene or two of each script, but would only continue reading if those scenes were compelling and well written. I asked how many scripts he read beyond the first couple of scenes?

He said only two.

Which means he tossed 114 of the 116 scripts after only a few pages.

The single most important skill required for success is the ability to write original, powerful, and compelling scenes. If a writer can’t consistently do that, all the story structure in the world won’t save them. Without this ability, a writer simply has no shot.

PROFESSIONAL SCREENWRITING AND TELEVISION WRITING WORKSHOP

In this intensive eight-week workshop, we will analyze successful scenes, complete weekly writing assignments, and review participants’ work in a supportive, yet challenging environment. By working on emotional context, narrative intensity, cohesion, organic escalations, clarity, efficiency, high impact pacing, set-ups, builds and pay-offs, participants will learn the tools necessary to write and edit professional-caliber scenes essential for any successful screenplay or TV script.

Additionally, participants will learn how to develop the four essential screenwriting skill sets necessary for long-term success – writing clear and compelling professional-level conflict, strengthening and integrating both the conceptual (story) and intuitive (character) sides of writing, organic story structure, and rewriting.

COST

$495. Participants may pay by check or credit card.

LOCATION

The Professional Screenwriting and Television Writing Workshop is offered online using multi-video conference technology allowing participants to see and hear each other in real time. Writers have attended this workshop from across the US, Europe, Australia, Canada, and South Africa.

For writers living in Los Angeles, the Professional Screenwriting and Television Writing Workshop is offered at The Writers Junction, located at 1001 Colorado Avenue in Santa Monica.

ENROLLMENT

New workshop sessions tend to sell out within a few days of being announced. Enrollment priority is given to writers on the Workshop Interest List. To put yourself on this list, or if you have questions, please email Lisa Mulcaster atlisa@coreymandell.net

Talton Wingate is an award-winning writer and professional screenwriter. He was honored for his first script Norman, named one of the “Top 10 Scripts of 2005,” alongside other screenwriting luminaries that year such as Aaron Sorkin (with Charlie Wilson’s War), Diablo Cody (with Juno), and David Benioff (with The Kite-Runner). Norman was released in 2011 as a feature film starring Richard Jenkins, Dan Byrd, Emily Van Camp and Adam Goldberg.

Talton has experience with all aspects of the business from selling specs, adapting original properties, rewriting and pitching. He has also been featured in scr(i)pt magazine. Talton is a graduate of Northwestern University’s Film Program and Creative Writing Program, where he was awarded Best Fiction Writer of 2003. He hails from Atlanta and currently resides in Los Angeles.

TriNet provides HR solutions to small and midsize businesses so you can focus on what your company does best. Our bundled HR products, TriNet Cloud applications and strategic services simplify your HR. Tailored by industry, TriNet’s bundled HR products cover the core services of payroll, benefits, risk & compliance, an HR team and a cloud platform. TriNet partners with more than 11,000 clients in a variety of industries (as of 3/31/15). We managed more than $25 billion in payroll and payroll taxes in 2014. – See more at: http://www.trinet.com/#sthash.EpLsoHdy.dpuf

You’ve launched your consumer product. You’ve got your first customers. The numbers look pretty good from a conversion, engagement and retention standpoint. You’ve got a lot of ideas for how you might want to market your product. You’re sure there are lots of other ideas you don’t know about. And you don’t have nearly enough time or budget to try everything you think might work. How do you decide where to spend your limited time and dollars? How do you prove your key marketing metrics that you will need to raise additional capital to fund larger marketing spend?

This is a really common situation for early-stage B2C startups. We have a panel of experts who have been through this with several startups. They will talk about what they did after launching and the stages they went through.

Then we will have some fun as two interesting startups tell us about what they are doing, what their plans are for marketing and get feedback from the expert panel.
This should be a fun, lively session and is a must attend for people who are thinking about launching a B2C startup.

David Oh, SVP of Growth, FabFitFun.comDavid is responsible for various strategies to grow revenue and customers, including paid acquisition, optimization, and product development.

David was formerly Head of Acquisition at BeachMint, and was head of product for Jewelmint.com (owned by BeachMint). He was responsible for cost-effective acquisition of all new members by testing, scaling, and growing various advertising channels.

ModeratorTony Karrer, Founder/CEO TechEmpower, Founder/CTO Aggregage

Tony Karrer is Founder/CEO at TechEmpower a leading web/mobile/software development company and Founder/CTO of Aggregage, a B2B media startup. Tony has worked with numerous startups as a part-time CTO including as the original CTO for eHarmony for its first four years. In addition to working with startups, Tony has consulted on technology implementations for large companies including Credit Suisse, Citibank, Lexus, Universal Music, IBM and HP. Tony is very active in the Los Angeles technology and startup ecosystem running the LA CTO Forum, the largest CTO group in the country, and Mentor Night, a peer founder mentoring group.

Sponsors

TriNet provides small to mid-sized businesses with an HR solution so they can free themselves from the complexities of HR and focus on their goals.

Clients partner with Cooley on transformative deals, complex IP and regulatory matters, and high-stakes litigation, where innovation meets the law. Cooley has 850 lawyers across 12 offices in the United States, China and Europe.

Veritas Prep was the first to require all GMAT prep instructors to score in the 99th percentile on the official exam, but that’s the minimum requirement to even apply for a teaching job. A candidate earns an interview by demonstrating teaching experience and a history of helping others. What makes someone Veritas Prep instructor material – and what all our instructors have in common – is proving the ability to teach students how to master the GMAT and to do so with passion and fun. To see who is teaching your own class, find a course near you.

This course is perfect for writers who have completed an outline and are ready to write their TV spec or pilot draft while reviewing and revising core structure and other key elements.

Starting with a pre-class PREP week, writers will read a selected comedy or drama script chosen by the Instructor as well as hand in their outline in its current incarnation in order to receive notes the first day of class. In SESSION 2, writers will receive notes on pages from the instructor and their peers on the first half of their scripts; in the 3rd SESSION, writers will receive note on the second half of their scripts.

Need to rewrite your spec or pilot? This class is the place to do it! Instructor Michael Perri will read, evaluate, and customize a prescription for your current draft in the first session so you know exactly what to focus on in your rewrite.

This course is perfect for students who want to re-break or re-write an existing project entirely, but aren’t quite sure where to start.

In this intensive 6-week TV workshop, writers have the option to focus on a TV spec or an original pilot. Your instructor will guide you step-by-step through the process of crafting your script from concept to solid outline using Script Anatomy tools. This applicable and hands-on course will help prepare you for staffing, development, and studio writing program applications, as well as give you tools that will be useful in your development process throughout your career.

This gathering is about peer mentorship. It is an opportunity for you to share with your colleagues something you’re interested in, whether it be to get feedback on a project, practice for an interview, to demonstrate a proficiency you can share with the community e.g. you do killer infographics, workflows or usability reports; discuss how to work with other professional teams, practice presentation skills – you can make it whatever you want it to be! Participation will be highly encouraged, but not required. Our sole purpose for gathering is to support one another in our professional growth.

If you are

• an independent consultant looking for a second (friendly) opinion

• looking for project collaborators

• working on amping up your portfolio

• just getting started in your career as a UX designer

• a seasoned professional who’d like to help others grow in their careers

• interested in upping the stakes in your involvement in the community

or just curious what this is all about, please join us at the UX Study Group and Peer Mentorship event at BLANKSPACES in DTLA!

Be creative and use this time for whatever you need to move forward in your career. Everyone is welcome: designers, user researchers, content strategists, developers, project managers, entrepreneurs and others.

Time for individual presentations to the group will be divided based on attendance so please be prepared to be flexible in your presentation time as it will be somewhere between 5 to 10 minutes. After the presentations we’ll have 60 minutes to mingle, collaborate, and connect with the people who most resonated with you, or work a bit on a project and get more feedback before the night ends.

Please bring a project, portfolio or even just your resume to practice presenting and getting feedback on. Don’t miss this opportunity, bring business cards and be prepared to make lasting relationships.

Veritas Prep was the first to require all GMAT prep instructors to score in the 99th percentile on the official exam, but that’s the minimum requirement to even apply for a teaching job. A candidate earns an interview by demonstrating teaching experience and a history of helping others. What makes someone Veritas Prep instructor material – and what all our instructors have in common – is proving the ability to teach students how to master the GMAT and to do so with passion and fun. To see who is teaching your own class, find a course near you.

Veritas Prep was the first to require all GMAT prep instructors to score in the 99th percentile on the official exam, but that’s the minimum requirement to even apply for a teaching job. A candidate earns an interview by demonstrating teaching experience and a history of helping others. What makes someone Veritas Prep instructor material – and what all our instructors have in common – is proving the ability to teach students how to master the GMAT and to do so with passion and fun. To see who is teaching your own class, find a course near you.

Come code along with Tim Fulmer, one of the JS Workshop series instructors on August 13th.

Learn how to:

– Correctly start a project with NPM

– Introduce core JavaScript concepts like scope and closures

– Work with core Node.JS events and callbacks

– Understand what’s going on behind the scenes with the Node.JS event loop

– Setup a simple web server

– Setup a simple gitflow

About the Instructor, Tim Fulmer
Tim currently works as VP of Engineering of HopSkipDrive, a fast growing licensed ride sharing for parents and children. Tim has held numerous senior engineering positions at other startups. His favorite subjects are leadership, processes, scaling, architecture, and dev-ops.

Need to rewrite your spec or pilot? This class is the place to do it! Instructor Michael Perri will read, evaluate, and customize a prescription for your current draft in the first session so you know exactly what to focus on in your rewrite.

This course is perfect for students who want to re-break or re-write an existing project entirely, but aren’t quite sure where to start.

In this intensive 6-week TV workshop, writers have the option to focus on a TV spec or an original pilot. Your instructor will guide you step-by-step through the process of crafting your script from concept to solid outline using Script Anatomy tools. This applicable and hands-on course will help prepare you for staffing, development, and studio writing program applications, as well as give you tools that will be useful in your development process throughout your career.

Veritas Prep was the first to require all GMAT prep instructors to score in the 99th percentile on the official exam, but that’s the minimum requirement to even apply for a teaching job. A candidate earns an interview by demonstrating teaching experience and a history of helping others. What makes someone Veritas Prep instructor material – and what all our instructors have in common – is proving the ability to teach students how to master the GMAT and to do so with passion and fun. To see who is teaching your own class, find a course near you.